Part Three: Those Gray Swans of Extremism, Chapter 17: Locke's Madmen, or Bell Curves in the Wrong Places Summary and Analysis

Summary

In Chapter 17 the author recounted his experiences while expressing his ideas to others. Business people generally accepted his ideas while away from the office, but once back to their work environments, they would keep on using their same faulty mathematics based on the bell curve, or Gaussian, way of thinking. He reminded the reader that highly complex statistical models have developed around Gaussian and Platonic thinking and that many of the people who did the development have been awarded Nobel prizes. As a result, Taleb did not think highly of the prize, since it rewarded wrongful thinking.

Those who made their livings teaching or practicing the objectionable mathematics...